S&B primers are hard in their .357 load. Fortunately I shot 25 rounds of the 140gr through my KKM .357 G35 and all 25 rounds fired without a hitch. I'm going to try 50 rounds on my G32 with the factory barrel and with a KKM .357 (G32/23) barrel. I have a good feeling that I may have a couple of failures to ignite on the factory barrel while I think the KKM barrel will fire all the rounds. The KKM chamber headspacing might be a little on the tighter side. Glocks barrel/chamber tolerances are towards combat reliability as the KKM barrel tolerances are towards the match grade level. The chamber headspace might be tight enough that the striker will be able to ignite the hard primer more often than with the Glock barrel. Nothing wrong with Glocks' barrels I'm just saying S&B's .357 load primers SUCK! Stan

Does S&B .357 SIG ammo shoot okay in other pistols besides Glocks? Could it be that the "hard" primers are borderline hard, i.e. shooting well in some guns and not others? If the stuff works well in hammer-fired SIG's and Glocks with extra-heavy striker springs, it may well be that the problem isn't really the ammo. The shooter may have an ammo sensitive gun.

Being sensitive is good if you're a poet, it's not so good if you're a combat pistol.

I vaguely remember the U.S. government 9mm pistol tests from the early 1980's. A couple or more of brands of "wonder 9" pistols lost points because of low-energy firing pin strikes. The Beretta and the SIG didn't have that issue. They gave the primers a good smack.

I have ran about 500 rds of it through my 31. I have never had a problem with it, but for what ever reason, about a month ago when I let my freind shoot it, he kept getting duds. I would load up a few mags to see and blast though them with no problems. I don't know what the deal was.

Shot 100 rounds of S&B 357 Sig from SportsmansGuide through my Steyr M357 and had 2 fail to fire on first strike. The S&B ammo also left a lot of what looks like unburnt powder grains, looks like sand, in the gun. Anyone else seen that?

I have yet to have any failure to fires in my Glock Mod. 31, but I purchased an extra power stiker spring for my parts kit, just in case. I will install it when...and if...I have any problems. I am taking my CZ52 and one of my three Makarovs to the range this weekend. I think I'll take the Glock 31 and put another 50 rds of S&B through it and see if I have any problems.

By the way, you guys having problems...what kind of recoil spring do you have? Factory? Wolff? Other? Also, you're not shooting limp wristed like a school girl, are you? That might result in the pistol not going into complete battery. ^3

Speaking of S&B and CTD, CTD is out of S&B 357sig ammo. I wonder if they got sick of the complaints and sent their on hand quanty back to S&B? The other day, I fired 50 rounds of Gold Dots through both my G31 and G33 no hard primers problems. Since there are some of you that are not having hard primer problems, it gives me hope that S&B has fixed the problem with their newer lots. Now the problem is finding these newer lots without getting stuck with 1,000rds of hard primer infested ammo.

So far, only the S&B 357 Sig have failed to fire on first strike. Shot much more Speer Lawman through the same gun with no problems. So in my case, I'm convinced it is the ammo and not the gun or the shooter. Accuracy is about the same between the 2 brands. Recoil is similar even though the Lawman is 125gr and the S&B is 140gr. The Lawman doesn't leave that grainy residue that S&B does.

Well, I took my Glock 31 out and three boxes of different lot numbers. I'm posting this from work and don't have my notes with me and I can't recall the second set of digits for one of the lot numbers, but they were 29 ??, 43 17, and 44 10. The only problem I had (and have ever had in over 600 rds of S&B fired) occurred with the latest lot number, 44 10. Everything else shot great with a nice strike on the primers.

I may have had a failure to fire with lot 44 10. I say "may" because my concentration was broken at the time. I failed to seat the magazine fully and upon firing, the magazine fell. Fortunely, I was using a two hand hold and I was able to catch the magazine before it cleared the pistol. I cleared the pistol, reinserted the magazine, and continued but I was not happy with myself for failing to seat the magazine properly. It was on, I believe, the first round after reinserting the magazine that I had the click. I brought the slide back just enough to reset the striker and...bang. I examined the primers of several spent cases from this lot number and there appeared well struck.

Before this I had shot the box of lot 29 ?? with no problems. After the incident, I shot the box of lot 43 17 with no problems. I wish I had another box of lot 44 10 to try again, but out of 15 boxes of various lots, it was the only box of that lot number I had.

Since this is the first and only time I have had any trouble with S&B, I'm not going to install my extra power striker spring I have in my parts kit. I will continue to shoot S&B in my standard Glock 31 and report here if I have another glitch.

In fact, if all of you who have had problems with S&B want to send that crappy ammo to me, I promise that I will shoot it and report my findings here on the board.

Originally posted by emperorbob Where exactly do I find the lot number?

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It's on the inside of the box end flap. It'll say something like "47*23". Not sure how to translate that back to manufacture date. I like ammo that has the lot number on the outside of the box like the Speer Lawman. Easier to make sure you're getting the same lot when buying at a store.

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